Emergency!

As promised, Cox filed a 43-page complaint with the FCC requesting the Commission to force broadcaster Nexstar to begin carriage negotiations immediately. The MSO warned Nexstar "through its words and actions" has made clear this dispute will spread to all Nexstar and Mission markets where Cox operates-19 stations and more than 595K Cox subs. (3 of the stations in the dispute are owned by Mission but operated by Nexstar). Cox says Nexstar has refused to negotiate by sticking to a unilateral demand of cash for carriage. On Dec 30, Cox said it received a written proposal from Nexstar that called on it to terminate retrans consent agreements for all 19 Nexstar and Mission stations and pay what would amount to $8.9mln over the life of the new 3-yr deal. Nexstar said Thurs it had not received a copy of the FCC filing and never received a carriage proposal from Cox. It added that it doesn’t believe it’s in violation of FCC rules. Cox lost NBC-affil KRBC (Abilene, TX market) and CBS-affil KLST (San Angelo, TX) Dec 31, and stands to lose ABC-affil KODE (Joplin, MO), NBC-affil KSNF (Joplin, MO) and NBC-affil KTAL (Shreveport, LA) at the end of the month. Cox said Nexstar also says it must drop NBC-affil KSAN (San Angelo, TX), but Cox maintains its deal for the station doesn’t expire until year end. Cable One is in the midst of a similar battle with Nexstar. The MSO’s content for now to see what happens with Cox at the FCC, an exec said Thurs.